As state leaders chide local governments for misspending taxpayer money, Florida TaxWatch is accusing the Legislature of having plenty of budget turkeys of their own.

Florida TaxWatch released its annual turkey list, which slammed 621 projects that cost taxpayers $830 million in the 2026-27 state budget.

“It’s proliferated. In my view, it’s a problem. Two thousand member projects are in this budget,” Florida TaxWatch CEO Jeff Kottkamp said during a news conference Monday. “That’s incredible. We’re simply every year looking more and more out like Congress.”

Florida TaxWatch’s report was released Monday after the Legislature approved a $114.5 billion budget late last month. The nonpartisan nonprofit is urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to scrutinize the state budget to eliminate wasteful spending.

“To be clear, and this is important, by no means are we passing judgment on a project’s merit value or need,” said Kottkamp, a former lawmaker and Lieutenant Governor. “With this report, we are simply holding legislators accountable for Floridians’ hard-earned taxpayer dollars.”

Some of the biggest budget turkeys were for lawmakers’ 344 water projects totaling $380 million that circumvented an official, competitive review, Florida TaxWatch said.

“The Legislature should adhere to the processes it created to fund water projects—the Water Quality Improvement Grant Program (WQI),” the report said. “Florida TaxWatch recommends that the Governor review each water project closely in his veto deliberations, determining if there is a compelling need for the project and whether it meets the criteria of the WQI Grant Program, including the relative ability of the local government to fund the project.”

The Legislature also appropriated funding $29.3 million for 41 local parks instead of funding grant programs administered by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

“It should be noted that colleges and universities received none of the funding ($124.0 million and $97.4 million, respectively) they requested for maintenance and repair of facilities,” the Florida TaxWatch report said. “All $260.2 million of the PECO funding in the new budget for Maintenance, Repair, Renovation, and Remodeling went to public charter schools.”

Other member projects to promote boating, the arts and transportation all escaped a more thorough review and oversight, Florida TaxWatch said.

“The Department of State’s ranked recommended funding list for Special Category Grants totaled $23.3 million. Neither chamber’s budget funded the program, which provides up to $500,000 for the restoration and acquisition of historic properties. This left the 55 projects approved and recommended by the Department of State and the Florida Historical Commission without funding,” the Florida TaxWatch report said. “Instead, the final budget funded 10 member projects ($6.7 million), including at least one project (Eckerd Hall) that does not appear to be a historic preservation project.”

To get dubbed the unfortunate nickname means the state budget appropriated funding to lawmakers’ pet programs, or to projects that abruptly appeared during budget conference without any public testimony during the Session.

“Not all member projects are turkeys, but most turkeys are member projects,” said Kurt Wenner, Florida TaxWatch’s Senior Vice President of Research.

Other budget turkeys carry no statewide impact and affect only a small local area.

Under DeSantis’ urging, the Legislature approved putting a constitutional amendment on the November ballot to overhaul local property taxes. The GOP rallying call has been that local governments are misusing taxpayers’ dollars and homeowners deserve property tax relief. Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia has traveled around the state and auditing local governments’ budgets.

But Florida TaxWatch also warned that the Legislature itself is also increasing the number of budget turkeys every year.

“The Legislature has been rightly criticizing local governments for rapidly increasing budgets, property taxes, calling them to only fund core services and saying that there’s too much wasteful spending,” Wenner said. “Despite all this, legislators continue to fund billions of dollars for projects in their districts, rewarding local governments that may not be sufficiently protecting taxpayers. While many of these projects could be worthwhile, many more are hardly priorities or even essential.”

Wenner and Kottkamp said the state could face shortfalls in the future if the Legislature’s spending trajectory continues.

“You’ve got to have some discipline,” Kottkamp said.